Gillespie's Map Room: This Warehouse District spot is best for drinks, pizza

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By David Farkas, Special to The Plain Dealer

Gillespie's Map Room, tucked into a long, narrow space along West Ninth Street, bills itself as "your neighborhood pub." That's true, given its proximity to the plethora of apartments and condos bordering the east bank of the Flats. Drinkers on my two visits wore jeans, khakis and shorts and appeared to have dropped in to meet friends, catch a ballgame, and kibitz with the staff. They were young and old.

Few people were eating.

This wasn't because the food is bad. It's because the 5-year-old Map Room is chiefly a place to imbibe. The focus is microbrewed beer, 42 brands in all, on draft and in bottles, with catchy names like Blithering Idiot and In Heat Wheat. The wine list isshort and mostly forgettable.

Some of the beers are visible through the glass door on the fridge behind the bar and some on the eight tap handles. A lengthy beer menu rounds out the rest. We quenched our thirst with the lovely Bell's Amber Ale and award-winning Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold ($4 each).

The room features several comfortable spots to rinse your tonsils. There is along bar with high-backed chairs, a sectional couch in front of a fireplace and a few tables against a brick wall. In keeping with the bar's travel theme, owner Matt Gillespie has hung a rare, red-and-white biplane from the ceiling. He claims it is one of only two in the country. The other is in Oshkosh, Wis. No need to go there now.

You could also eat comfortably here from a 35-item menu.

We started off one meal with a Greek salad ($4.49) composed of iceberg lettuce, mealy tomatoes, canned olives and tasteless feta cheese. Green, leafy things do not belong in this bar.

Deep-fried goodies, on the other hand, always have a place in a beer joint. But the Map Room doesn't season its popcorn shrimp ($5.99), at least not our order, which turned greasy a few minutes after landing onour table. I did like the side of tart cocktail sauce. We loved the wings (six for $2.99); garlic-spiked and hot were favorites, though I couldn't figure out what the white mystery sauce was. Celery sticks would have been nice. Our server failed to bring them.

Pizza is the Map Room's specialty, and the two we sampled did not disappoint. One, called New Jersey Style ($12.49), piles provolone, mozzarella and roasted tomatoes onto a chewy-thin crust. The Veggie Supreme ($12.49), as good as it is, could do with some of those so-so tomatoes and canned olives.

The same tender crust, this time rolled into a big calzone and filled with cheese ($6.99) makes for a substantial meal. You can add lightly seasoned Italian sausage for a buck more. (Heads up: You don't get much.) The Italian Panini ($5.99), which was toasted and not pressed, also featured a rather paltry portion of ham and pepperoni.

No burgers here, by the way. Gillespie told me by phone that the tiny basement kitchen won't accommodate a grill. The menu's brats ($3) and hot dogs ($2), which went unsampled, are nuked in a microwave.

If that doesn't sound particularly appealing, take advice from one of my companions. Go for a drink, and if you're thinking of food, order after your fourth or fifth brew. Then, just about anything on this menu will satisfy a craving.